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Transformational Government and the Citizen

Year 1 report

Content

Foreword………………………………………………………………………………3

Worklessness in Maryport………………………………………………………….4

Older People…………………………………………………………………………..6

Shared Revenues & Benefits……………………………………………………….9

Tell Us Once………………………………………………………………………….10

Integration of Regulatory Officers……………………………………………….11

Shared ICT……………………………………………………………………………12

E-Recruitment Portal………………………………………………………………..13

Video Conferencing…………………………………………………………………14

Commissioning Seminar…………………………………………………………...15

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Foreword

Dear Colleague,

The first year of CIEP’s Transformational Government and the Citizen theme is now complete. The purpose of this report is to bring you up to date with the theme’s work, outcomes achieved and any next steps. I hope you find it interesting and informative.

The first task for the Project Board was to define the shape of the Year 1 programme. The Board decided to focus on two main strands to drive forward the Transformation agenda; Shared Customer and Shared Services.

The Shared Customer strand utilised the Needs Led Service Assessment for two target customer groups to report on key challenges to the current model services delivery in Cumbria. Full details of these projects are contained within the report.

Shared Services is another key mechanism for authorities to transform the ways in which they currently work. The programme delivered a range of projects in this area; from enabling Video Conferencing to developing a Good Practice Case Study and toolkit for authorities sharing back office services.

Going forward … we are now looking at supporting the joint commissioning and shared services work through a CIEP Program Board made up of all local authority partners. One of the main roles of this board will be to examine the development of business cases in support of joint commissioning. Working with key elected members and officers within their own authorities will be another key role of the Program Board as well as identifying the cashable and non cashable efficiencies of each project.

Yours Sincerely,

Harry Dyke,Project Lead, Transformational Government & the Citizen theme.

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Shared Customer strand

Needs Led Service Assessment: Worklessness in Maryport

Brief outline of what the project covered:

The project’s purpose was to understand the needs of workless people in Maryport and identify how these were or were not being addressed by direct and indirect service providers. The main focus was to have a clear understanding of need and to refocus and reengineer service delivery to meet this.

It was important that workless people themselves were involved in determining the assistance and support they require so focus groups of both stakeholders and service providers have been involved.

This project was a pilot, focusing on one customer segment and one locality. It has the potential to rollout to other segments and a wide variety of localities providing a common framework and approach to meeting customer needs.

The agreed project objectives were:

To provide a common approach to meeting the needs of workless people in Maryport across a range of service providers who are directly or indirectly serving the needs of workless people.

To obtain a clear understanding of the issues of workless people and the barriers preventing them from working or accessing services.

To map existing services to workless people in Maryport.

Outputs:

The project had two sets of outcomes, one short term and the other longer term. These were:

Short term Increased access to services for workless people Increased knowledge of services provided A common working framework between service providers to be agreed.

Longer term Reduction in the overall numbers of workless people in Maryport Culture changes – people prepared to work Reduction in overall unemployment and improvement in indices of deprivation,

particularly health.

Outcomes achieved:

The project has identified a number of improvements which could assist both workless people and the service providers. These can broadly be grouped into three key areas:

Service access

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Inter-agency working Continuous improvement and service impact.

A common framework for service providers has been drawn up and seeks agreement from agencies to key principles in the areas above. To ensure maximum access to services the framework focuses on the following priorities:

A personalised approach Local access to services Transport Communication Childcare

To ensure improved inter-agency working the framework focuses on the following areas:

Information collection and sharing Service co-ordination Co-ordinated packages of support.

A joint customer and service provider ‘sounding board has been set up and the first meeting held. The framework has been agreed and an action plan started.

What has this funding enabled and what are the next steps ?

The project concludes that the next steps are to:

Jointly complete and agree the action plan Ensure that one agency takes the lead in driving this project forward in future Set up a method of monitoring performance and feedback mechanisms

In addition, to aid learning and utilise the findings of this project, it’s planned to share the outcomes, priorities and recommendations with partners the Public Service Delivery Board and others through CIEP.

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Needs Led Service Assessment: Older People


In October 2008 South Lakeland District Council undertook an exercise to understand the needs of Older People in South Lakeland and identify how these are currently addressed by service providers in conjunction with a range of stakeholders, incl. Older People themselves. This work was a pilot project to test a new approach to delivering efficient and effective services – Need Led Service Design. By understanding Customer’s needs, then designing and wrapping services around these needs, the Council felt its services, and those of its partners, could be better targeted and more effective. This approach sits well with the integrated service models being explored across many public sector organisations at present, particularly health & social care.

Older People seemed a logical starting point for this new approach. They are a key demographic - In South Lakeland 27% of the population is aged over 60 compared with the national average of 21% based upon the 2001 Census and it is an ageing population with predictions that those aged 65 – 74 will increase in South Lakeland from 2006 to 2016 by 34.5%, those aged 75 – 84 will increase by 6.5% and those aged 85+ will increase by 11.8% during the same period (ONS Projections).

By understanding the needs of Older People, and then mapping these to existing service provision, the Council hoped to understand the opportunities to improve services to better meet these needs. The report, published in November 2008 identified a series of recommendations by seven key policy issues for South Lakeland. Those seven key policy issues are:

Housing, Relocation to area, Finance, Employment, Isolation, Joined up Government and Health, Well-being and Independence.

A series of recommendations to improve services and information to Older People were identified. These were categorised as: Better Engagement & Governance, Better Services & Better Information

A Program Board of key service providers has been established and managed through the South Lakeland Local Strategic Partnership. Partners include NHS Cumbria, Cumbria County Council, Cumbria Fire and Rescue, Cumbria Constabulary, Age Concern and Department for Work & Pensions.

Outputs / Outcomes:

There are identified outcomes that the overall Program wants to achieve some of which are presented below. There are a number of projects set up below the Program to deliver outputs that will contribute to the overall program. These are identified in the attached project dossier that is to be discussed at the Program Board on 16th July.

The ultimate goal of the program is:To ensure the needs of Older People are met through close collaboration across service providers.

To deliver this vision a number of outcomes will need to be delivered. These will define what success will look like:

Preventative services are pro-actively provided to Older People through collaborative working;

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Information is captured once about an Older Person and shared as appropriate; Unmet needs are recognised and Older People directed to the appropriate service

provider, regardless of their initial point of contact; Older People in South Lakeland feel they have their voice heard, their needs recognised

and are empowered to make demands of the public sector; Innovation and excellence in meeting the needs of Older People is recognised and

celebrated.

These outcomes will lead to a series of benefits or capabilities in terms of new ways of working (for organisations) and improved services (for older people). These benefits need to profiled and understood and importantly owned by stakeholders – the realisation of these benefits can only happen at the stakeholder level and therefore early involvement of those people responsible for benefits realisation is critical to the ultimate legacy of the program.

At a project level three work streams have been set up: Information – how better information flow can help to meet older people’s needs Business Change – improved engagement, governance, services and information Technology - what is currently in place to support collaborative working and how that

should be improved

Finally the success of the program will be measured by targets that each organisation will have around meeting the needs of Older People based on the Government’s National Indicator Set. For example in South Lakeland District Council these are: NI138 Increase satisfaction of people over 65 with both home and neighborhood to 95% by

March 2011NI139 Increase number of older people who feel they are getting the support they need to live

independently at home to 52.2% by March 2011

The program aims to make best use of public sector resources to meet the needs of older people. It will be consistent with the requirements of the new performance framework and CAA, which recognises that customer needs cannot be met in isolation.


The CIEP funding allowed for the initial mapping work to be conducted across the service providers which has led to the identification of the project dossier.

More detail will be required if the program is to deliver real results on the ground and so the outcomes, and intended benefits, will need to be developed into a ‘blueprint’ for services for Older People. This ‘blueprint’ will define how services to Older People will be organised and supported and indeed how they will feel for Older People themselves as users. This ‘blueprint’ will ensure that the purpose of the Program isn’t lost or distorted once constituent projects are developed.

Further mapping work will also need to be completed, which will provide the entire picture of the service that older people may be eligible for and from this we can identify potential improvements. Those areas include:

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adequate finance, access to leisure and family, social interaction, learning opportunities, specific care due to frailty and entitlement to support independent living

Shared Service Strand

Shared Revenues and Benefits

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Brief outline of what the project covered

Revenues and Benefits Shared Service - Procedure harmonisation stage

As part of the ongoing project evaluating the feasibility of a Revenues and Benefits shared service between Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland, the importance of harmonising working procedures was identified. Other shared services – notably Westwey – confirmed the need to complete this harmonisation as a foundation for a successful operation. The Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland project engaged external consultants, ACS Ltd, who are recognised experts in Revenues and Benefits procedures and regulations, to assist the practitioners in this process. Financial support from CIEP provided funds to cover the majority of the consultant costs (CIEP support £10K).

Outputs

The assignment covered the two distinct strands of Revenues and Benefits functional areas and workshop sessions with the consultants took place between Feb and April 2009. The outputs have been sets of aligned procedures covering these areas that are now being consolidated within the authorities and will form the sound base for any potential shared service to be implemented. These outputs could now be a valuable input to any extension of the Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland project to include other councils, or indeed to any other Revenues and Benefits shared service project in Cumbria.

Outcomes achieved:

The exercise supported by CIEP has contributed to each of the three authorities having harmonised working procedures based upon best practice. Whilst this outcome is valuable in its own right, by having common procedures a future shared service will be easier to achieve at the operational level.


Currently, a detailed business case for a shared Revenues and Benefits service is being prepared and will be submitted to each authority in due course. This will outline any next steps.

Tell Us Once


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Scoping project to identify the opportunities and challenges that a Cumbrian wide, local authority Tell Us Once, Change of Address service would present. It was envisaged that if successful, this initial project would lead to and generate a wider use of a Cumbrian wide service from year 2.

Outputs:

The scoping would identify

some clear successes that are already in place and in operation, identified the main barriers to extending this service council and county wide and other

opportunities with partners organisations that could be explored.

The initial work would also generate a Plan of Action and proposal for phase 2 of the project.

Outcomes achieved:

A report was produced which outlined

Current processes within local authorities Opportunities to further develop our existing systems and processes The key challenges that we face in extending the service Opportunities to address data sharing across the County Opportunities to develop the system with partners agencies A project plan to implement this from April 2009


The project has enabled the customer services managers to have a better understanding of current processes and will enable a best practice procedure to be developed for Cumbrian authorities.

The project produced a plan to implement the learning from April 2009

The systems and process could also be replicated to cover other similar services like change of name and notification of death and change in circumstances.

Integration of Regulatory Officers Systems


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This feasibility study supported the work of the existing Cumbria regulatory services working group. The group is working towards the achievement of a collective vision for future regulation and enforcement across Cumbria.

The group recognised that the vision will only be realistic with some measure of shared information and shared working.

The project was established to look at the feasibility of working more effectively together. This was undertaken through a series of interviews, workshops and reflections arising from the feasibility study

Outputs:

The outputs were recommendations for further funding on specific projects to enable the vision :

Create a new shared electronic repository Implement a Cumbria wide business registry

Undertake shared assessment and benchmarking

Outcomes:

The feasibility study looked at how the group could achieve the vision. The feasibility study report is the main outcome from the project. The feasibility study supports the group’s view that the vision can be achieved, through a series of supporting projects as identified within the report.

An additional output is a substantive bid to the CIEP/NWIEP for further funding to deliver the projects identified in the report.


The funding enabled the group to engage a consultant to provide the challenge to the group through a series of workshops and one to one interviews.

The funding allowed the group to consider how it could achieve a vision to enable better regulation across Cumbria.

The funding has provided the group with a feasibility study which has lead to a substantive bid to CIEP/NWIEP for further funding to enable the delivery of the projects identified within the study to support the delivery of the vision. The delivery of the projects is dependant on the funding bids.

Shared ICT

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Appraisal of the two recent IT Shared Services projects in Cumbria (Allerdale/Carlisle and Barrow/South Lakeland)

Outputs:

1. Case Study document, contrasting the approaches and experiences in the two projects.2. Toolkit suitable for use by managers considering/involved with any shared service project

which includes both local and national guidance on best practice.

Outcomes:

Both the agreed outputs have been delivered, on time, and within budget.


Whilst the Case Study stands on its own and is useful in itself as a record of the projects, the Toolkit has potential for uses in a much wider context. It already provides a valuable resource but with additional input it could also be further enhanced.

E-recruitment Portal


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Search engine optimization programme for e – recruitment portal. Including traffic to portal by ensuring key web search engines (Google, MSN, AOL etc) find the portal from key word searches.

Outputs:

Top ranking in Google searches under

“Jobs in Cumbria“ “Job Cumbria”

Steady month on month increase in page views and total hits.

Outcomes:

June 2009 – Portal in the top 50 Google searches for “Jobs in Cumbria” and “Job Cumbria”

Total hits up from 74, 500 in January 2009 to 220, 000 in June 2009.Total Page views from 15, 500 in January 2009 to 39, 000 in June 2009.


The project was completed in June 2009 and no further search engine optimization is planned. Development of the portal will include exploring links to a national portal. Currently being discussed with Local Government Employers Organisation and also engaging more Cumbrian partners through Cumbria Strategic Partnership (CSP)

Video Conferencing


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The project provided Video conferencing facilities across the sub region strategically positioned to ensure easy availability to all sub regional partners.

The facility created a gateway to the internet and therefore allowed access to any video conference across the world.

Outputs:

Deliver a gateway configuration to allow internet access to Video conferencing

Deliver 6 Video conferencing facilities using partner’s properties

Outcomes:

Reduction in time and money spent in attending conferences and meeting across Cumbria and beyond.


The funding built on the original County council project and allowed for a greater availability of the facilities and a more accessible solution for Cumbrian authorities.

The attached County Council report is on the impact of Video conferencing on the costs. This does not include District savings.

Commissioning Seminar


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The Cumbria Chief Executives group, (through the CIEP Transformation Project team), requested a piece of collaborative commissioning work be organised. All seven Councils and the LDNPA were invited to the two workshops. Unfortunately, Eden were unable to attend either workshop, although they are in the early stages of assessing their future options in relation to both Highways & related services and Leisure services contracts, which expire in March 2012. (In effect, over £2m pa. of their total £9m pa. spend).Note: Alan Ratcliffe and Conway Stewart were invited to a one day future options workshop by Eden District Council on 27 April 2009, regarding the above, where it was suggested there could be synergies with the future County Council Highways contract and ‘streetscene’ activities more generally across the County. This same theme was again suggested by individuals at the workshop on 28th May, and was warmly received by all.

Outputs:

Two workshops were held at Newton Rigg College on the 19th May 2009 and the 28th May 2009 for Chief Executives and Senior Officers. Six authorities were represented at these workshops.

Outcomes:

Workshop Objectives.

WORKSHOP 1: 19 th May 2009 :Workshop objectives were agreed by consensus through representatives from each Council.An initial collaborative vision was discussed for ‘Team Cumbria’.Key drivers were agreed as follows:

1. reduce costs2. performance improvement & improved VFM3. improved resilience/increased capacity/reduced duplication

Four outcomes were identified as follows:1. cash savings2. joined-up services/improved clarity for customers3. increased customer satisfaction4. encourage achievement of wider collaboration

The next step was to carry out a high level scoping exercise in order to identify services for collaboration, then to begin to populate a scoring matrix on the same.

Whilst accepting that this exercise was to a degree, quick and dirty, it did however identify several ‘bundles’ of services which, through consensus, we felt we could move forward under the shared services agenda. In the first workshop, we sought to ‘bundle’ services by rationalising them under several generic headings and in the second workshop we identified proposed delivery timescales as follows:

Corporate & transactional services (Payroll; Legal; H&S and Emergency Planning delivered by 2010 and ICT; HR and Finance delivered by 2012)

Property rationalisation (delivered by 2011) Procurement/commissioning (delivered by 2012) Customer services (split: delivered between 2010/2012); Regulation & enforcement (delivered by 2014)

(These bundles were re-visited in Workshop 2, as intended, and subsequently expanded upon, by including ‘Highways & streetscene’: delivered by 2012).

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Discussion then centred on future governance arrangements and after some debate, it was generally suggested that perhaps, with the imminent program revisions coming through RIEP to CIEP, post 12 June 2009, it may be advantageous to re-focus CIEP as a Program Board, managing a series of projects (service ‘bundles’/subsets of such) going forward.

Next stage was to discuss future service delivery models ie. public-public partnerships; public-private partnerships and doing the former before doing the latter. Finally, potential blockages to progress were discussed and mitigation proposed.

WORKSHOP 2: 28th May 2009:

Initially, we discussed examples of case studies from other local authorities.

Next we re-visited in more detail, the service ‘bundles’ and included an additional bundle for ‘Highways & Streetscene’. We also attempted to put implementation dates on bundles/subsets of service bundles (as described above), accepting that there was a need to achieve some quick wins, whilst not shying away from the more complicated services.

We then moved on to look at outcomes/benefits to be realised and the potential resources required. (Later, the meeting also discussed the potential risks and mitigations).

Finally, the workshop participants summarised the consensus views and actions required.

KEY ISSUES/ACTIONS ARISING FROM THE TWO WORKSHOPS FOR POSSIBLE DISCUSSION AT CHIEF EXECUTIVES MEETING ON 12 JUNE 2009:

1. All the Council’s were much more focused in wanting to implement shared services, (not just talk about it), even after acknowledging the financial pressures they are facing. Proposed timescales for various service bundles were proposed through consensus. Shared services discussions were about implementing public-public; public-private and initial public-public but with a view to moving such into public-private once we had stripped away any inefficiencies from particular services.

2. Workshop proposal through Harry Dyke, as chair of the Transformation group, to RIEP, recommending that CIEP governance in future, be re-configured as a Programme Board, with the service bundles/subsets of such organised as discrete projects. Also, to apply to RIEP to pump prime the new governance by funding a project director role to co-ordinate the programme of projects and drive the wider agenda.

3. The County Council (and the Districts/LDNPA) would all need to identify resources to drive forward each service, bundle/subset.

4. Agreement across all chief executives wishing to participate, through some form of written concordat, but with element of flexibility built in to accommodate any particular local nuances.

5. An urgent deadline would be required regarding an agreement in principle to scope out some form of ‘Highways (and Economic Development) & Streetscene’ contract, being advertised for procurement (via OJEU Notice), no later than July/August 2009.

Suggested key issues/actions for County Council CMT/Cabinet going forward:1. Agree, both strategically and tactically, to scope out which particular shared services

opportunities the Council would like to implement (how they fit with our existing strategies and future procurement/service delivery options); which it wants to lead on, (against what timescales), and under which route ie. public-public; public-private; a variation of such.

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2. Agree/identify/allocate the resources to undertake initial baseline assessments and options

appraisal/cost benefit analysis, prior to implementation of specific ‘project-related’ activities under the shared services agenda.

3. Agree CIEP/county-wide Governance arrangements (An Agreement) which protects the Council’s interests; retains a degree of flexibility and manages our risks throughout the shared services process.

What are the next steps ?

The suggested next stages for the six projects as agreed at the workshops are as followed:-

Project 1– Corporate and Transactional Services – undertake further base-lining and/or diagnostic work in order to facilitate the development of a business plan for the services across all the councils

Project 2 – procurement and commissioning – develop business case for collaboration Project 3 – Highways/street scene – produce business case for collaboration, taking

account of existing legacy contracts Project 4 – customer service – produce business case for collaboration of customer

access and information management Project 5 – asset management – identify appropriate team to investigate opportunities

taking account of what individual authorities were doing Project 6 – environmental regulation and enforcement – produce business case for

collaboration

Funds have been allocated to take this forward.

ENDS

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